News The Summer of Mark Hamill's Discontent

[Ithekro]

I seem to recall an interview with Mark Hamill from a long time ago where he mentioned that Lucas asked if he's like to come back in like 30 years and play the Old Ben like roll as Luke. Implying the old hermit wizard type role rather than "Luke Skywalker, Grand Jedi Master" that was in the EU. TLJ touches sort of on both. There was the legendary Luke Skywalker, who never lived up to what people imagined him to be (the Great Jedi Master), and than his disillusioned hermit self who wants to die "alone" for what he thinks he's done to the Galaxy, because he knows he's not the legend everyone wanted him to be.

 

[Set Harth]

Yeah it was George's idea to make Luke so disillusioned that he left millions die. No that was all Johnson.

Uh, what? That was all set up in TFA before Johnson was in the picture.

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

Mostly because the stated format was "The Skywalker Saga", thus it seems reasonable that there would be a Skywalker Protagonist again (Anakin, Luke (and Leia as we later found out))

Logical.

I was never one of the "Rey is a Skywalker!!!" (or Kenobi) crowd, as it made the SW galaxy seem small if new characters just had to be related. That was a problem in the PT, where a once single purpose character like Boba Fett was shoehorned into being a clone "son" of Jango / the basis of Palpatine's troopers. It was not necessary and as anyone would guess, was milking Boba's popularity to ridiculous degrees, making everyone as related as what one would see in a daytime soap opera.

To that end. just because Rey is strong in the force did not mean she had to come from the strongest force-attuned family in the galaxy, just as Yoda, Windu, Dooku and other powerful force-users were not from that line. I know some want the Skywalker story to continue through another generation, but that would have been served by having Luke's legacy be the master of a new generation of Jedi that played out on screen, instead of it being a spoken backstory to Ren's fall.

 

[fireproof78]

Yeah it was George's idea to make Luke so disillusioned that he left millions die. No that was all Johnson.

No, it was not. Nor was Johnson just given carte blanche to do whatever he wanted.

 

[publiusr]

It's just that the legend of Ford wanting to be killed off in VI led people to see his death in VII as somehow overdue, and thus it seems to have been overlooked by some that this meant Luke & Han would never share an onscreen moment post-Jedi.

What I wanted was for Han and Leia to be allowed to build a small hovel in the one spot on Coruscant that was left untouched--that they greened it up a little. (Orowood)

Luke would have visited the couple. Han would be cleaning his blaster, it falling to pieces. Luke leaves, lost in skyscrapers after a few steps. he..feels something--goes back--and sees the hovel in flames.

"Not again"

 

[DigificWriter]

Yeah it was George's idea to make Luke so disillusioned that he left millions die. No that was all Johnson.

Nope.

We learned within the last year via a concept artist that Luke was described as being a "Col Kurtz-like figure dwelling in a cave" during pre-Abrams development on The Force Awakens, and that George personally approved concept art depicting Luke almost exactly as he ended up appearing both at the conclusion of TFA and throughout the majority of The Last Jedi.

This is not something that can be disputed: the concept of Luke's role in the Sequel Trilogy came directly from George and was fully approved by him.

 

[TRON JA307020]

No, it was not. Nor was Johnson just given carte blanche to do whatever he wanted.

Yeah he was.

 

[fireproof78]

Yeah he was.

Well, this is going to go like this:

I've read Behind the Scenes details that inform us that Johnson was overseen by Kennedy and the story group, that Abrams was aware and had come to a similar conclusion as Johnson regarding some story elements. From a post regarding notes from the Last Jedi Art book:

- The Story Group, Dave Filoni, Brain Trusts of Lucasfilms, JJ Abrams all knew what Rian Johnson was doing with the story. Rian Johnson script was least edited out of all the Star Wars scripts with only different drafts with tweaks but the story and what he was doing with the story never changed because all parties and organs of Lucasfilms supported it. So Dave Filoni knew what was going on as did Hidalgo and Story group.



- Rian Johnson had personal meeting with Rick Carter Co-Production along with lead artists for the TLJ who went through every aspect of his story, every aspect of the art and then Rian Johnson and other lead artists for TLJ went through with Pablo Hidalgo and Story Group the Star Wars library and complete archive, every decision Rian Johnson made with the story in TLJ went through EVERY part of the Lucasfilm inner circle and he read lots of the Lore and archives on the lore and artwork books, went through it all for ideas for his story. Because Lucasfilm essentially had a massive library and vault/archive of all things Star Wars. SO LET THIS BE CLEARLY STATED TLJ was not just his project, he DID not drive everything. So the people that say Rian Johnson Killed Star Wars are incorrectly attributing a multiple person process to one man.

Now, I don't agree with everything Rian Johnson did. But, I'm not going to heap blame at him just because it sounds good.

 

[DigificWriter]

Yeah he was.

You are about as factually wrong as it is possible to be based on very easily accessible, widely diseminated, and verifiable information.

 

[Set Harth]

Rian Johnson script was least edited out of all the Star Wars scripts

And it shows.

They basically just flipped through it and went "Look good to me!"

 

[DigificWriter]

And it shows.

They basically just flipped through it and went "Look good to me!"

Johnson's script wasn't edited very much because it didn't need to be.

And it resulted in a film that I believe a wide majority of people - both Star Wars fans and general audiences - would list as one of the best in the franchise.

 

[Tosk]

Johnson's script wasn't edited very much because it didn't need to be.

It really did though. Someone should (at the very least) have brought up how people keep coming and going from the looooong chase at will without any real effort. Even with excuses as to why, that kind of thing destroys any tension regarding them getting away. It makes the people on both sides of the chase look foolish.

 

[TRON JA307020]

Johnson's script wasn't edited very much because it didn't need to be.

And it resulted in a film that I believe a wide majority of people - both Star Wars fans and general audiences - would list as one of the best in the franchise.

Lol! No empire strikes back was far superior. That casino scene alone made it the worst since phantom menace.

 

[fireproof78]

Lol! No empire strikes back was far superior. That casino scene alone made it the worst since phantom menace.

The casino scene felt like it had a point to the world building, which is more than I can say for a lot of TPM, sadly.

 

[DigificWriter]

Lol! No empire strikes back was far superior. That casino scene alone made it the worst since phantom menace.

Ridiculous hyperbole does not do you any favors, especially when you are deliberately ignoring the wider context of my comments in an attempt to puff up your own opinion.

The Last Jedi is disliked and/or hated by a small segment of the Star Wars fandom, but the large majority of the fandom, as well as general audiences, signalled with their wallets and words that the divisiveness generated by it was an outlier and not an actual indicator of its quality.

You are perfectly entitled to dislike the film, but disliking the film does not give you the right to contravene the facts, which are that it is viewed in a very positive light by both the large majority of the SW fandom and by general audiences.

 

[Refuge]

I was bitterly disappointed by TLJ, that's a fact

 

[ALF]

Nothing to add to this thread per se, but I just wanted to say that the title is one of the most amusing I've seen here in a long time, and when I see a new response in the "The Summer of Mark Hamill's Discontent" thread, it makes me smile a little.

Hamill seems just like the kind of guy to make an account and respond to this thread if he ever sees it.

EDIT: I do have something to add, in reflection having no scenes with Luke/Han together in the new trilogy cements the idea that the storyline is looking forward with new characters and that the original core of Leia, Luke and Han no longer exists as it did - each of these characters has to help the new characters and not make the focus of the story about Luke, Leia Han, but rather Rey, Finn, Poe. It does seem like a deliberate decision, much as I wanted to see all three reunite together myself.

 

[JD]

I still can't help but wonder how different the story for TLJ would have played out, and where it would have lead Ep IX, if they knew in advance Carrie Fisher wouldn't be able to do Ep IX.

 

[ichab]

Johnson's script wasn't edited very much because it didn't need to be.

And it resulted in a film that I believe a wide majority of people - both Star Wars fans and general audiences - would list as one of the best in the franchise.

Mmmmmm....no. Not even close. Glad you liked it, but the movie had a very mixed reaction from audiences so I highly doubt it places very high on many "best of" lists.

 

[DigificWriter]

^ That "audience score" was deliberately sabotaged.

And Rotten Tomatoes scores mean nothing anyway.